Ferris-Wheel Water Slide “SlideWheel” Honored with 4 Top Awards

Designers and representatives from Wiegand.Maelzer, a water slide creator in Germany, knew they had something special with their water slide/Ferris wheel hybrid, “SlideWheel,” but they never expected the reaction from international theme park community. After the World Waterpark Association (WWA) Tradeshow in Las Vegas and the IAAPA Attractions Expo in Orlando, SlideWheel took home, not one, but four major industry awards.

SlideWheel’s mind-bending design takes sliders on a unique gravity spin that’s pure spectacle! The Ferris wheel’s rotation creates motion unseen in any other water slide experiences. Sliders on 4-person rafts experience strong G-forces, backwards sliding, pendulum movements, and multiple moments of airtime. SlideWheel is nearly 80 feet tall with a tube that is 460 feet long. The ride’s unique motion that brings sliders back and forth through slide sections, riders enjoy twice as much slide time than there is actual slide. It’s first installation opened in April at Chimelong Waterpark in Guangzhou, China, is an astounding hit and several other parks around the world are opening theirs soon.

At WWA in Las Vegas, Weigand.Maelzer received the waterpark industry’s Leading Edge Award. Then in Orlando they received the IAAPA Brass Ring Award for Major Ride Attraction and the IAAPA IMPACT Award. This prestigious award is given to one company or attraction per year for having the greatest impact in the industry.

To their surprise, the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) announced that SlideWheel would receive the Outstanding Achievement Award for an attraction at the TEA Thea Awards Gala at the Disneyland Resort in April 2019.

“To be recognized and appreciated with these awards makes us all very proud,” Wiegand.Maelzer stated in a press release. “We are proud and honored that our teamwork, our entrepreneurial courage, our perseverance and our innovative strength have been recognized in this extraordinary form.”

“Sliding, swinging, rotating, up and down, back and forth – the SlideWheel combines all of these movements like nothing else in the world. If you want it all, here you are!”

Freddy Martin

Freddy Martin, MSML (freddy@themedattraction.com) is a writer, storyteller, and independent consultant. He began his theme park voyage as a skipper on the Jungle Cruise at Disneyland. Freddy co-hosts the Themed Attraction Podcast with Mel McGowan of Storyland Studios, is a contributing editor for ThemedAttraction.com, writes for InPark Magazine, and blogs at FreddyMartin.net.